


Ocean Drags You Down

by lighthouseglow



Series: Life Is Strange [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Anxiety Disorder, Best Friends, Coming of Age, Diary/Journal, Doctor Who References, Female Friendship, Geeks, Gen, Grief/Mourning, High School, Kidnapping, Let's Play, Mystery, Nightmares, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Personal Canon, Post-Save Arcadia Bay Ending, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recreational Drug Use, Sacrifice Chloe Ending, Save Arcadia Bay Ending, Sisters, Star Trek References, Suicide Attempt, Superpowers, Time Travel, Twin Peaks References, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2018-09-17 09:54:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9318065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lighthouseglow/pseuds/lighthouseglow
Summary: High school is the roughest point of anyone's life.No one told me I'd have to rewind and do it all over again.





	1. The Fury In Your Head

**Author's Note:**

> For Erin, the Chloe to my Max, who will probably not play this game until I beg her to. Life Is Strange isn't mine, but Max's choices, personality and sexuality are. As usual, I'm playing the game in real time so everything you read is my reaction to plot developments. Rather than use Max's in-game journal, which is basically just a recap of the plot, I'm writing my own.
> 
> Also I'll never play it again since it was difficult to get through, emotionally and otherwise. It'll be a proud addition to my library, though. I will pick up season two if they make one.

October 8, 2013  
Tuesday

What do I know for sure? I’m Max Caulfield, I’m eighteen years old, my best friend/sister is Chloe Price, I’m in love with Warren Graham…and I can rewind time. Trippy, right? This whole week’s been “hella” trippy, as Chloe would say. (Where’d she get that lingo, off some internet forum?) Her girlfriend, Rachel Amber, has been missing for about six months and Chloe’s determined to find her. I’m going to help because she’s my sister and that’s the kind of shit you do for your family and journal, journal, I’m fucking exhausted—I started this entry as a “grounding” exercise. Haha, as if I’ll sprout wings next…though I wouldn’t put it past the universe to throw _that_ curveball at me too, like a shitty sci-fi flick. (Some of the shitty sci-fi flicks are some of my guilty pleasures… At least I can make Warren smile, that’s something.)

Kate almost killed herself today over a viral video on the internet, wowzers. Can’t say I haven’t been in her shoes before… I used my rewind power to save her, but I don’t feel like the hero everyone says I am. Chloe’s worrying me too; she’s not the sister I remember and that’s slightly scarier than all the creepy shit going down in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. I love having the beach so close, though, and I managed to get some great shots with the camera Chloe gave me for my birthday.

Really tired now, though. Going to get a soda and start season one of Twin Peaks before I get my Sherlock on and keep researching…


	2. A Force of Nature

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At least I have the drive-in with Warren to look forward to at the end of the week…so long as my tornado vision doesn’t come true or anything.

October 9, 2013  
Wednesday

“Who killed Laura Palmer?” sounds a lot like “Who killed Rachel Amber?” and unfortunately I’m no closer to answering either question. (I think Bobby did the former and that asswipe Nathan Prescott is somehow involved in the latter.) Today’s been really weird; hell, this whole week’s been weird. At least I have the drive-in with Warren to look forward to at the end of the week…so long as my tornado vision doesn’t come true or anything.

I’m at Chloe’s house now, by the way; we went swimming in the Blackwell pool last night just for shits and giggles and David Dickhead didn’t catch us! The Blackwell ninjas strike again! I wonder if Mr. Jefferson did anything like this when he was in school… He was probably like Warren at our--

_Hot for teacher, Max! =D_

…You used an emoji, Chloe.

_Just this once._

Who said you could hack into my journal?

_…Please, this is not hacking, sister._

You know what I mean.

Anyway, like I was saying before Chloe interrupted me, Mr. Jefferson was probably like Warren at our age and then he obviously grew up and stopped being a science geek. Even if it’s not the truth, it’s probably more _interesting_ than the truth. Isn’t that what all the best stories are? Anyway, I'd better head back to school eventually...


	3. Can Never Find the In Between

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well.
> 
> We found Rachel, just...just...not the way Chloe and I wanted.
> 
> At all.

October 10, 2013  
Thursday

Well.

We found Rachel, just...just...not the way Chloe and I wanted.

At all.

Chloe's screams in the junkyard will haunt me until the day I die. " _Rachel_!!! Oh, God, please not _her_!!! _I loved her so much_!!!"

"I'm sorry, Chloe, I'm so sorry..." As if stupid words would somehow make her feel better... What _can_ you say to someone that just lost the love of their life? Chloe got to her feet and vomited again inside an old tire; I had to scramble to my feet to avoid the stench of Rachel's body.

"I'm _going to fucking **kill him**_ , Max!!!!" she howled.

"Who?" 

"Nathan. Fucking. Prescott. I don't give a fuck if I didn't get an invite to the Vortex Club shit, he's going down. Tonight. One bullet. In his fucking elitist head."

Chloe was beginning to stomp around and my anxiety was spiking just listening to her. "Stop stomping around, Chloe, Jesus!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Max!" she snapped viciously. "If that were Warren..."

"What about him?" I asked, glaring.

"If that were Warren down there, you'd be just as pissed off as I am. I'm going to kill Nathan Prescott tonight. End of the World party, ha! More like the end of _his_ world. Get in the fucking truck, Max."

"Alright, alright! Jesus, Chloe..." I muttered as I hopped in the passenger seat. "I really hate parties..."

" _Somebody_ needs to warn Victoria while I'm tearing Nathan limb from limb."

"Oh, yeah, like she's gonna believe me..."

"You saved Kate, Max. I know..." Chloe's grip on the steering wheel relaxed for a moment. "I know Victoria...can be a bitch, but...she doesn't deserve..."

"I know, sis."

"So get in there and save her ass while I tear Nathan apart. Simple!"

Clearly Chloe and I have different definitions of the word simple. See you on the other side...I guess?


	4. Some Days I Feel Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Don't leave me. Stay. Everyone I love leaves."

October 7, 2013  
Monday

I had no other option.

I really didn't.

I sacrificed my sister to save Warren, to save Arcadia Bay, to save Frank Bowers... The names would go on and on if I listed them here. "Don't look, Max," David muttered to me as he escorted me out of the bathroom. It didn't matter what choices I made in that non-existent week because it never happened. Warren came to my dorm as soon as he heard the news and I've never been happier to see someone. Ever.

"Fuck it, Graham, hold me," I sobbed.

"I am, am, I am..."

"I never want to see Nathan Prescott's fucking face again."

"You won't, Max," he said, wiping my face. "I think the police are going to make sure of that. You know what's really weird?" (We were cuddled together on my bed at this point, old photos of Chloe strewn across the floor that I had looked at earlier this afternoon.)

"What, you scruffy-looking nerfherder?" I laughed softly because it was better than crying my eyes out.

"They took _Jefferson_ in for questioning. Cuffed and everything. What the hell does he have to do with this?"

"You know those posters of Rachel Amber?"

"Yeah, they're everywhere on camp--"

"I...I know where her body is."

"How?"

I told him in the diner that I wished we'd had more time together and I meant it. So I did what I didn't do in the alternative timeline: I told him everything. Me in the bathroom, trying not to have a breakdown after class, shredding my photo, seeing Chloe get shot, my power... Everything. "Rachel... She...She's in the...junkyard. We found her...before..."

_They're fucking together in heaven right now. Is that what you want to hear?_

"...Before I time traveled," I said, trying to not hear Jefferson mocking me in my head. "You helped me and Chloe. Without you...we wouldn't have been able to..." Before I knew what I was doing, I was kissing him; I...like to think that Chloe would've understood why.

"I...um...Max, I wanted to say..."

"I know, Warren."

"Of course you do." He laughed, sat up a little bit and stretched. "Feel up to watching a movie?"

"Sure, it'll take my mind off of all this shit. You got Titanic on your flash drive? I wasn't able to go through everything..."

"Yep. Always makes me cry. Pretend I didn't tell you that."

"Sure thing, Science Guy." After everything I've been through, even watching him pad across my dorm room was difficult. "Warren..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't leave me. Stay. Everyone I love leaves."

"Hey, Caulfield," he said gently, coming back with his laptop and flash drive, "I'm not going anywhere."

He's fallen asleep next to me on the bed. He's really cute.

_That guy is so fucking in love with you..._

Chloe, I think we'll be able to make it through your funeral on Friday.


End file.
